The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-05-06
EDWIN BOOTH AND HAMLET
The Hamlet Saga.

Among medieval national chronicles the Dan
ish history of Saxa-Grammaticus occupies S
notable place. This Saxa was an ecclesiastic of
| Roeskilde, whose forefathers had served the
| kings of Denmark. He wrote the chronicles in
the last part of the twelfth and early part of the
thirteenth centuries. prompted to do So as he
says himself, by Ahsalon, Arch bishop of Den
| mark, aud Prime Minister in the reigns of Val
| demar the Great and of Canute his son. He
| wrote then in order that the Danes might not be
behindhand in comparison with other nations
whose great deeds had been preserved TO pos
terity by the aid of the historians. Saxas history
concludes with the year 1855; the latter part of
| it is derived from eye-wtnesses from living
traditions. The sources of the earlier portions
were the "sagas," more or less poetic accounts of
the heroes of old Denmark. The original manu-
script OF Saxa was lost as also were six or seven
others that survived to the seventeenth century.
but which are now doubtless gone forever.
| Curiously enough. fragments undoubtedly be-
| longing to Saxas own copy were found at
| Anglers, in France, and by the courtesy of the
| French government were transferred to the
| royal library of Copenhagen. They were in the
handwriting of Saxa's time, and full of marginal
and nterlinear corrections in the same hand as
the text
The art of printing which gave general cir
manuscripts before known to but few scholars,
brought the Chronicles to light in 1914. The
work is printed in Danish and is very
scarce. A recent translation from it of 'Tne
Historic of Hamblet," or "Amleth," as Saxa
wrote it, may be found in the Nineteenth
Century, 1883, and also in Alden's Monthly
Magazine, February, 1888 1t is made by Count
De Foble.
The story of Hamlet belongs to the legendary
portion of Saxa's Chronicles. 1t trans
ferred from the Danish of 1914, in French
version, to Belleforest's Collection of Tales.
printed in Paris, in 1911 From the French it
was widely translated into English in the last
quarter of the sixteenth century though no edi-
ton of earlier date than 160S is known at
present The general suppositlon is that
Shakespeare built his tragedy on Belleforest's
transcription Shakspeare's Hamlet surely
written between 1898 and June, Of 1902. and
there is good internal evidence that 1000 was the
year
[The internal evidence" that fixes the date of this
the greatest of Shaksperes dramas in the last year
of the century, is this: In Act H. Scene 2 where
Hamlet and Rosencrans are discussing the coming
players, Hamlet asks, How chances it they travell
Their residence both in reputation and profit, was
inhibition by the of the late innov
and further goes on to speak OF the eyry OF chill
ton and are tyranncally c1apped for it; these
the fashion; and beratte the common
stages so they call them that many wearing rapiers
afraid of goose-quills. and dare
thither." The Inhibition" which forced the TRACE
dams to travel was an order of the Prvy Council in
1900 restricting theatrical performances to
theaters, and the Late innovation the perform
ance of plays by the choir boys of st. Pauls and
other churches There several companies of
these chorister performers-nests of young hawks
who of course shouted their parts in high shril
tones, and played before the court The
year 1000 that all but two theaters were closed the
certainty to the production of Hamlet in 16oo.l
1t matters little what edition of Saxas Chron-
icles Shakespeare had access to- or in what lam
guage. We have no evidence that the greatest
brain and fullest head the world knows of was
cultivated beyond the Stratford grammar
school. He may have heard the Saga only may
have read the French, may have read the En-
gish translation lost, may have picked up
what he wanted of it from any one of two or
three different dramatiZatons of the old Ham
les Historic" which certainly were written and
played, though lost sight of now, and which
could have easily enough been known to Shak-
speare. This man. who could take any legends
of human nature or cosmopolitan tradition and
nationaEZe them by infusing his perfectly En-
gish character and understanding needed not to
go far for his material He took whatever legend
at hand to his purpose: and breathed into it
the breath of his intellect and fancy. and his
clowns, fools and ghosts became real. put
such new form and substance as made them new
creations, in whose existence. all who read
them acted must believe forever.
The likeness and difference between the Saga
and Hamlet is well set forth IL the contents of
the Historic" which is divided into eight
chapters. In the story Hamets father is not
king but governor with his brother Fengan,
who lives in adultery with Hamlets mother.
He is not poisoned. but is openly put to death.
Hamets madness Is counterfeit of his own
suggestion, and not from the ghost of his father;
the story has ghost-an important difference.
Ophelia of the story takes half dozen lines
only; she loves and favors Hamlet, and tells
him of the treason. In the story no play con-
vcts the King of conscious guilt; in the story
Hamlet kills the listening courtier before his
boiis it and feeds 1t to the hogs He ' also
takes revenge by burning his unce's banquet
hall when it is full of drunken courters, rouses
his uncle from drunken slumber and cuts off mis-
head. There is no likeness in the story and the
play after Hamlets return from England. There
is a noticeable mbance in some minute par
ticuars, when Hamlet in both story and
play. calls out "A rat. a rat" on finding the
eavesdropper in his mothers closet. The con-
tents of the second third and fourth chapters of
the story suggestive of the paraelism of
story and play. How Hamblet counterfeited
the mad man to escape the tyranny of his uncle;
how Fengan, uncle to Hambet caused one of
his counselors to be hidden in the Queens
chamber. behind the arras, to hear what
speeches passed between Hambl and the Queen;
how Fengan the third time devised to send
Ham blet to the King of England with secret let
tiers to have him put to death and how Hamblet,
when his companions slept, read the letters. and
wrote others willing the King of England to put
the messengers to death. and to marry his
daughter to Hamblet, which was effected: and
how Hamblet escaped out of England" etc. The
next four chapters of the Historic have no
likeness to the Hamlet of Shakespeare.
AS to the various editions of Hamlet, only two
are notable; the abbreviated and pirated edition
of 1903. of which only copies known
(reprinted exactly by Nlcul in 1925, and the
folio edition of 1928 known as the First Folio"
Second folio, 1852, is reprint of
the first; the third folio, 1864, contained
"Pericles" and six spurious plays. which
only had the weight of Shakspeare's name.
The fourth folio appeared in 1885, duplicate of
the third. Only this first folio is of any value
in determining the text of any of Shakspeares
plays. His dramas were published without his
consent. and but eighteen of them in his life
time. and these separately The poems-Venus
and Adonis, and Lucrece-he gave to the press
himself, and probably the sonnets, but his care
for his plays seemed in inverse proportion to
their value. 1t is to Shakspeares friends. John
Heminge and Henry Condell. his fellow actors
and Joint theatrical proprietors that this price